Combination wire treating and drawing apparatus and process



Nov. 28, 1967 w. J. MANSON 3,354,687

COMBINATION WIRE TREATING AND DRAWING APPARATUS AND PROCESS Filed June23, 1965 FIG.I

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WALTER MANSON ATTO RNEYS United States Patent Delaware Filed June 23,1965, Ser. No. 466,326 3 Claims. (Cl. 72-280) This invention relates toa cornb ination'apparatus and process for electroplating and/or picklingand/or polishing and finally drawing wire and similar strip material.

The term wire as used in the specification and claims will be understoodto include strip material of polygonal, tubular and irregular crosssectional shape as well as that of true round cross sectional shape.

Among the objects of the invention is to provide a process and apparatusfor treating heavy wire and strip material as by pickling,electroplating, electropolishing, etc., and then, without manuallyhandling the treated wire, continuously drawing it to the desired crosssectional size.

The chemicaltreatment portion of the apparatus of the present inventionis one particularly suited for the treatment of heavy wires of the typedisclosed in U.S. Patent No. 2,680,710 wherein the wire to betreated isfirst straightened, then coiled into the form of a helix with ahorizontal axis and treated by supporting a number of coils of the helixon a horizontal supporting roller while the lower portion of the coilsdip into the treating baths.

Theoretical methods or apparatuses for continuously treating and thendrawing wire,'especially where the treatment involves passing the wirein and out'of' a chemical j bath capable of reacting with the wire, arefor the most part impractical because of the limitations inherent in thetwo types of wire treatment. For example, a process or apparatus inwhich the wire is treated in chemical baths is best operated with acontinuously moving wire because if the movement of the wire is stopped,the attack of the solutions on portions of the wire retained therein isexcessive. On the other hand, the movement of the wire through thedrawing dies must be discontinued at certain intervals to permitchanging the drawing dies, etc. Also, the wire drawing devices may beadvantageously operated at faster speeds of wire feed than the chemicaltreating apparatus or process.

The objects of this invention are obtained by combining a helical wiretreating device of the type disclosed in said U.S. Patent No. 2,680,710with a wire drawing device which may be of a conventional type byinserting between these two devices a store device which is capable ofholding either a large or a small amount of wire, which is capable ofdischarging a portion of the wire held thereon and which isolates anytwist applied to the wire in removing it from the store device so thatthe twist is not fed back to the wire passing through the chemicaltreatment portion of the apparatus. The store device does, in fact, adda slight twist to the wire (which will be removed in the first drawingstep) but is so constructed that the twist is not allowed to extend backto the chemical treatment portion of the combination.

Although an apparatus exactly like that of US. 2,680,- 710 may beemployed for the wire treating portion of the apparatus, an apparatuswith two supporting rollers such as claimed in US. Patent No. 3,002,537is far superior to the apparatus with the single supporting roller of2,680,- 710 and is preferred for this invention.

The store device of the combination of the invention which is insertedbetween the chemical treatment portion and the wire drawing portion ofthe apparatus is a stator block type of device.

The chemical treatments which may be applied to the Car Patented Nov.as, 1967 wire in the first portion of the apparatus (prior to drawing inthe last part) include, cleaning, depolarizing, pickling, electroplatingwith one or several metals in one or several separate baths, deplatingor polishing and washing. One or several of these treatments may beapplied to the wire. Where several treatments are applied, a washing orrinsing treatment is preferably applied between each two chemicaltreating baths.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 shows a top plan view of the treating and drawing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is an end view of the treating portion of the apparatus.

The raw 'or untreated wire is shown in the form of a coil 13 which mayhave that end thereof which is most remote from the machine connected toan additional coil, etc. The wire is first passed through a die 16adapted to remove the twist, resulting from withdrawing the wire axiallyfrom coil 13, and to remove loose scale, etc. The wire is pulled throughdie 16 by capstan 17 and then passed to a pair of squeeze rollers 11, 12adapted to push the wire through the remainder of the chemical treatingapparatus. Between capstan 17 and squeeze rollers 11, 12, the wire maybe severely bent back and forth by passing over guides 14, 15 but thistreatment is essential only for wires which are covered with a heavy andadherent scale.

The squeeze rollers 11, 12 push the wire through straightener devices 12(only one shown) and over a coiling means 23 which coils the wire due tothe fact that it is out of alignment with the path of the axis of thewire as propelled by rollers 11, 12. The helical coils'formed by roller23 pass onto the horizontal supporting rollers 30, 31. While supportedon rollers 30, 31 and rotated, the wire helix 10 is passed by ascrew-like action through the series of baths 40-45. The first twochemical treatment baths 40 and 42 may be cleaning and pickling bathswith the water rinsing bath 41 therebetween. Additional baths may beadded between 42 and 44. In bath 44, structures are provided forconducting an electrical current through the wire 10' with the latter ascathode so as to plate metal from the bath onto the Wire. Bath 45 isanother rinsing bath.

During its last passage over rollers 30, 31, the wire passes under aroller 51 and is thereby substantially straightened. As shown in detailin FIG. 2 the roller 51 is mounted so that it can be vertically adjustedin the slotted support 50 by means of the adjusting knob 52.

The wire passes from the chemical treating machine to the store devicewhich comprises the elongated stator block 82. Stator block 82 does notrotate but is retained in stationary position through the arrangement tobe described. The entire mechanism 80 is supported from partition 81which is partly broken away to show the internal structure and the tube84. Securely fixed to the partition is the stationary gear 87. The flyer88 with its back gearing 83, its idler guide rolls 85 and 86 is securedto the tube shaft 84. The tube shaft 84 is mounted in bearings throughthe partition 81 and gear 87. This assembly is driven by external means.Pressure roll 90 holds a plurality of turns of wire 10' on the block 82.The block 82 is freely mounted by bearings on the tube 84. Gear 92 issecurely fastened to block 82. As the flyer rotates, the gear 83 whichis connected to gear 94 through shaft 93 also rotates and in turnrotates said gear 94. The gear 92 contains the same number of teeth asgear 87 and gear 83 contains the same number of teeth as gear 94 so thatgear 92 remains in the same position as gear 87, which is to say astationary position. The block 82 can be made as long as desired, forexample long enough to store about 20 to turns of wire. The coils willremain substantially in contact as shown under pressure roll 90 untilaxially pulled rom the end of the store device 82. Additional forwardingollers 95, 96 may be supplied to pull the wire off of store evice 82 andguide it to the wire drawing device.

The wire is pulled axially from the end of block 82, s by rollers 95,96, pulled through a die 75 to remove the wist, by a first drum 72 andthence the wire is pulled hrough additional dies 73 and 74 by drums 71and 70, espectively. As already indicated, the stator block 82 nay bemade of any desired capacity, and its operation the same whether itcontains one or two turns of wire Ir whether it is completely filledwith wire.

The features and principles underlying the invention lescribed above inconnection with specific exempliications will suggest to those skilledin the art many other modifications thereof. It is accordingly desiredthat the tppended claims shall not be limited to any specific feature )rdetails thereof. 9

I claim:

1. In a device for continuously subjecting wire to treatnent withchemical liquids and then drawing the same, he combination comprising,

means for continuously forming wire to the shape of a helix of uniformcoil diameter,

horizontal roller means for storing a consecutive series of the coils ofthe formed helix which is adjacent to the coil forming means so that theaxis of the stored helix is horizontal and the lower portions of thestored coils are suspended from said horizontal roller means,

at least one liquid container means surrounding the lower suspendedportions of a plurality of said stored helical coils, means forcontinuously straightening the wire as it reaches the end of saidhorizontal roller means,

stator block means for continuously winding said straightened wire ontoa non-rotating block adapted to hold at least 20 turns of the wire,

at least one wire propelling means substantially axially aligned withrespect to said non-rotating block,

die means for drawing said Wire positioned between said wire propellingmeans and said non-rotating block.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 comprising electrode meansassociated with at least one of said liquid container means whereby saidwire may be electrochemically treated.

3. In a process for producing drawn wire the combination comprisingcontinuously forming the wire to the form of a helix of horizontaldiameter,

continuously chemically treating the wire while in the form of saidhelix,

continuously straightening the treated wire,

continuously storing the straightened Wire in the form of a secondhelical coil, and

intermittently withdrawing portions of the wire from said second helicalcoil while maintaining the continuity of the wire, and drawing thewithdrawn portion through at least one die.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,470,374 10/ 1923 Boley 72461,902,493 3/1933 Dantsizen 7246 2,394,620 2/ 1946 Leonard 72-462,651,104 9/1953 Giros 7239 2,913,354 11/1959 Bell 7246 3,002,537 10/1961 Kenmore et al. l'-1 CHARLES W. LANHAM, Primary Examiner.

H. D. HOINKES, Assistant Examiner.

1. IN A DEVICE FOR CONTINUOUSLY SUBJECTING WIRE TO TREATMENT WITHCHEMICAL LIQUIDS AND THEN DRAWING THE SAME, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING,MEANS FOR CONTINUOUSLY FORMING WIRE TO THE SHAPE OF A HELIX OF UNIFORMCOIL DIAMETER, HORIZONTAL ROLLER MEANS FOR STORING A CONSECTUIVE SERIESOF THE COILS OF THE FORMED HELIX WHICH IS ADJACENT TO THE COIL FORMINGMEANS SO THAT THE AXIS OF THE STORED HELIX IS HORIZONTAL AND THE LOWERPORTIONS OF THE STORED COILS ARE SUSPENDED FROM SAID HORIZONTAL ROLLERMEANS, AT LEAST ONE LIQUID CONTAINER MEANS SURROUNDING THE LOWRSUSPENDED PORTIONS OF A PLURALITY OF SAID STORED HELICAL COILS, MEANSFOR CONTINUOUSLY STRAIGHTENING THE WIRE AS IT REACHES THE END OF SAIDHORIZONTAL ROLLER MEANS, STATOR BLOCK MEANS FOR CONTINUOUSLY WINDINGSAID STRAIGHTENED WIRE ONTO A NON-ROTATING BLOCK ADAPTED TO HOLD ATLEAST 20 TURNS OF THE WIRE, AT LEAST ONE WIRE PROPELLING MEANSSUBSTANTIALLY AXIALLY ALIGNED WITH RESPECT TO SAID NON-ROTATING BLOCK,DIE MEANS FOR DRAWING SAID WIRE POSITIONED BETWEEN SAID WIRE PROPELLINGMEANS AND SAID NON-ROTATING BLOCK.